2010 alternate blog posts & new adventure

In 2010 I joined up with some local buddies at Weekly Minis to try to inspire each other to paint one mini a week.  For myself it was a bit of a failure as I found myself either not posting when I was doing batches (generally that I needed complete for a tournament or particular game) OR I was putting off doing any batch painting (that wasn't as crucial) because it would be weeks before I felt I could post anything.

At the end of 2010 I called it quits to focus on my own blog and just do what I wanted.  This has worked out well so far with painting levels much closer to 2009 (in fact I'd already surpassed 2010 by mid-year!)

Recently, I posted a comment on a Portuguese blog (Merry Mayhem News) that I have been following a while due to their blood bowl content - basically offering miniatures to paint because Paulo was so bored he was taking pictures of gummy bears.  Well apparently I am the first ever commenter and also their only follower! Paulo contacted me to ask if I would be interested in contributing to their blog, and since (other than random nonsense) it's about blood bowl, I had a hard time refusing.  I will give it a year at least to see what comes of it.  My plan is to port over some blood bowl content as well as maybe try a dual live blogging/twitter of my experience at this years Chaos Cup.

For this reason it is time for me to say goodbye to my posting privileges at weekly minis.  Some of the guys are still going strong but it's time for a new focus for me.  Even though I don't think they will delete anything, I have backup up all my posts and ported them over to this blog, using the label "weekly minis" (strange, that!).

Week 52: Tristan - final few minis for 2010

Well I had a lovely long holiday season that included a trip to BC.  In the last few weeks of 2010 I got a couple more guys painted as I've kicked into hobby gear again.  For the past month I've been assembling more space marine models to paint next year - and one in particular (my first land raider) forced my hand to paint a 6th member of my Crimson Fist terminators so the land raider can roll with a full squad.

He's not perfect - the eagle and other bone details didn't get the right colour wash and the white on the head isn't as clean as the rest of the squad, but from a foot away it's hard to tell so I'm classifying him as done!

I also got a couple more necromundan rats painted up.  Very similar to the two I did very early in 2010.  I picked up two more since I want to try running a Wyrd Coven gang using Anthony Case's rules and a beastmaster wyrd can actually gain a boost that allows him to control an extra beast.    I want to get some of the other beast types this year.

This will probably be my last post for this blog.  It was fun following you guys as we all attempted to paint a mini a week, but I found it difficult to keep up with posting on my own blog and my overall amount of painting seemed to diminish.  I'm sure there were other factors involved but I found myself painting models I wasn't planning to use as much (not a bad thing) and my motivation for painting this year was low.  In 2011 I'm going to try to focus on my own blog as posting more frequently there kept my motivation higher and tended to get more response.  All the best in 2011 guys and I will be continue to follow your endeavours.  I hope to play more WHFB and 40k this year so keep me in mind if you are looking for an opponent.

Week 38: Tristan - a couple singles

A couple singles that I've gotten finished up over the past little while.  I've had the wyrd finished since I got into building my pit slave gang.  I took some time trying to get two good photos of the wyrd with the magnetized electric bolt (pretty cool if I do say so myself) this was as good as it got.  I actually ended up leaving his skin (pretty much just the head) as just the skull white + badab black wash undercoat I've been using frequently of late.  I wanted to try and get a very pale/albino type look and finally just realized it was staring me in the face!

This guy is an old warhammer fantasy elf from back when there was marauder miniatures.  I kept him to build up my collection of mini's suitable for warhammer quest (or any other fantasy character based game) and the original plan was to use him as the elf ranger or lord of aenarion from deathblow.  I was browsing through a buddies blog when I saw he had a few warhammer quest posts up, and in one he has a mini to use should the ranger select the "mage" path.  Well another mini I've kept from before my hobby sabbatical is a high elf mage.  I've decided I'm going to touch him up and re-base him along with the other few warhammer quest mini's I've painted this year to use as the "mage" version of the ranger. For now this guy will be the "knight" version, but I may decide at some point to get a specific elf knight model so I can count him as only a lord of aenarion and boast of having a model painted for all the "official" characters.

Week 37: Tristan - Necromunda... Pit Slaves!

I've practically finished up my necromunda pit slave gang.  Gave them a light dip and left to dry.  Then I did the bases by gluing some techy bits down, painting them and adding a mixture of various sand/rock flock - the rest of the base was painting black. A spray of dullcote followed by a few touch ups to cover up some dipping accidents (some blood on a few arms and the barrels of guns) leaves just a thin layer of mud to finish up the base.  I left the mud until last because I'd like it to keep a bit of a gloss (impossible with dullcote)

I can't wait to get a game in with these guys.  I'm currently sealing my recently reacquired escher gang, so I hope to get some nice pictures from the next couple battles using completely painting gangs. I'm planning on using Anthony Cases updated rules.  I'm already collecting bits to make some more arms.  Since I've actually glued armour bits onto all of the plastic models, I'll probably use something like skill rings to represent actual armour plates in game terms.  

 For the amount of effort I put into these minis, they look great.  Dip + Dullcote = Win.  I got excited, built all the models, painted on a base coat, dipped and then some basing and touch ups.  I'm really happy with the "piece of crap" tone they have, obviously being cobbled together from spare junk.

Finally - I will also have no problem playing these guys as servitors in my Space Marine armies.  I've tried to make the bases very busy so they will kinda blend in with whichever marines I'm using.  Also why I've kept the rims black.  They should be right at home with my marines - guess I should get that thunderfire cannon built!

Week 34: Tristan - Necromunda... Spyrers

I do have some other pics to do a step by step if anyone is interested, but here is my second batch of Spyrers, doubling my initial gang size to ten!!  You can see pics of my first batch on my blog here.

Let me know if you wanna see the step by step photos.  I'd highly recommend the painting method used.  I took these five models from basecoated red and black to finished in about four hours. They look quite good for the amount of effort put in.

Week 27: Tristan - Antagonist "aka the bad guy"

Another long hiatus between posts.  Life hasn't been too crazy I just seem to lack motivation.  I've finally finished up Dave's second model (from mini painting for free)

Sorry for the quality of the photos, just took these quickly with my phone.  When I get a chance I'll stitch these last four together to give a 360 degree look.

I used my tested and true method for black which is very light gray drybrush highlight followed by several layers of badab black wash. I missed a tiny piece of flash on his cloak so I painted it green to look like a caterpillar or bug. Other than that I stuck to neutral'ish colours since he's not necessarily uber evil. Though I did paint dark arched eyebrows to make him look sinister.

Week 18: Tristan - Cowboy

Well hopefully this gets me back on track. My last post was more than 5 weeks ago just before a local blood bowl tournament when I finished up (nearly) the rest of my orc blood bowl team. While that gave me some motivation to finish them up, it sadly didn't live long. As soon as I got my dark elf blood bowl team back from my friend Thomas all painted, it let me off the hook in terms of getting a team ready for the next tournament. I had hoped this would mean I would jump back into painting for the fun of it, but it didn't really work out that way.....

Until - I found Dave's "Mini Painting for Free" blog. The premise here is that Dave was struggling with motivation, so he decided to paint other people's mini's for free, in the hopes that it would at least curtail his own spending on models that would sit on the shelf. It hasn't stopped his spending 100%, but it does seem to be working fairly well. I decided I was going to send Dave a couple figs of mine to paint, but I also thought I would give a go at painting one or two of his figs, to try and spark my own motivation.

It has worked to a degree, first of all the motivation is definitely there to paint when you owe it to someone else (just ask Thomas ;-) ) and secondly while I haven't started painting batches of guys yet - I have started painting some more of my individual figs. I decided to focus on getting Dave's done since I'm off to Jamaica tomorrow and have yet to send him mine. This way that week won't be in vain - Dave will get one of his figs back and mine will go along for the ride so he can begin painting them. Without further ado...


I distinctly remember telling Dave when we were figuring out the swap that I didn't care what figs he sent "hell send me a cowboy if you like" since I hoped a change might do me some good, and sure enough a cowboy was in the package he sent. I will be sending him an old genestealer patriarch and one of my harlequins (I've decided to get various people to paint up my few harly's so they all should have their own "touch" - if any of you guys are interested, let me know!)

Week 13: Tristan - Orcs (blood bowl)

Well I've had a bit of a break over March, but I'm hoping here's a spark to start my paint-fu up again. I participated in my first blood bowl tournament in March, and another is coming up at the end of April. Having used my undead team last time I wanted to use something different. This didn't leave me very long to get a team fully painted - so I decided to finish up as many pieces as I can for my Orc team - funny enough coinciding with the last item I painted for this blog - the snotling score counter. So far I've gotten 8 more pieces painted, still have a turn counter and need to make some reroll counters - but I definitely needed the two extra black orcs & blitzers.

Week 8: Tristan - Snotling (blood bowl)

This year I'm going to try and get any smaller outstanding projects complete. Tops on that list are my orc blood bowl team - Da Badlandz Deff Ramz, and also my necromunda Spyrers. To that end to try and get caught up with you guys I got my little snotling score counter painted up. I tried several ways of writing "skor" including k & r backwards, but still ended up liking this the best. I have something to use as a turn counter (old school musician) but I need ideas for re-roll counters - any thoughts?

Week 7: Tristan - Psyker/Wyrd (warhammer 40k/necromunda) painted

Well something had to be done to snap The Raf's streak (at four posts in a row, what a machine!) - I got home and took a break from doing some space marine bits (I have a large batch of Space Sharks marines & vehicle bits to paint, but one can only line with black wash for so long before one needs a break) to get this guy painted up and get my week 7 completed (late!). All in all I probably spent about 4 hours painting him.

He's an imperial psyker, I bought that blister with three of them in it to use one for my genestealer cult magus (funnily enough - not even fully painted yet) and last time I had the hobby room I primed this guy for whenever the urge fell upon me.

Any IG army I do is still a long time coming, but I could easily use this model as a wyrd in Necromunda (perhaps the Empath wyrd from Anthony Cases "Even Wyrder" supplement, or I'm sure he could be a Telepath or even a Beastmaster).

I decided to use goblin green for his robes just to be really different from anything I've already painted, he'll be based the same as my other Wyrds which should really make him pop when it's done. I spent some extra time on his face but everything else was pretty much basecoat, then a wash of devlan mud over everything. I also stayed away from red as that would've been one too many models with red/yellow/green - so some details are regal blue and the purity seal wax is leviathan purple.

Week 6: Tristan - LOTR Wargs (warhammer) painted

A quick post. I had to focus on getting my wargs painted as they've been sitting here primed for two weeks. I've actually painted 30 of them, you can see more details on my blog. Not sure how many this should count but I definitely need them to count as week 6. Some of you (aka Karl) have seen my washes only goblins before. This is more of the same.
Edit: Wow no comments eh? I guess it's not very impressive seeing three models. Maybe this will be more impressive. (< 6 hours total painting time from primed to finished for all 30).

I've given myself 15 points for these guys, as they are essentially all 1/2 a model until I get the riders done.

Week 4, Week 5: Tristan - Marksmen (mordheim) (catchup) painted

I also got around to painting a couple quickies to try and catch up. These are a couple old metal handgunners I got with a bunch of stuff my friend gave me. Even though I prefer crossbows in mordheim, I figure at least if I find any I will have models to represent. They are quite terribly painted, but that's ok as they fit in with the rest of my terribly painted talabheim mordheim warband. Basically I painted on a white undercoat, where they weren't going to be red I used 2 coats. Then I painted the quarters red, the faces & hands flesh, the stocks & bags leather, the beards and metals black, then boltgun metal on the guns and helmets. Yellow for the ribbons and then a wash of gryphonne sepia over everything and they're good to go. This puts me back on track for tomorrow, not sure what's up next...

Week 3: Tristan - Wardancer (warhammer quest) painted

Yikes, is this guy ever late! Week 3 my ass! To be honest I found him a bit of a chore to paint after doing the Dwarf. Along with having other priorities for hobby time meant he got the back shelf for a bit. I think I'm going to test out saving up a bunch of painted models and then just doing a bunch of bases in one day.
I tried to stick with a very limited palette on this guy as with my other warhammer quest models. I want to make sure they are all quite unique and easy to pick out from one another. As his hair was going to be blonde I went with purple for his gems. Once I had everything basecoated I gave him a wash of devlan mud all over and then started picking out details.

Week 2: Tristan - Dwarf (warhammer quest) painted

Here finally I am done with the Dwarf for warhammer quest (except for that blob of orange on his boot - how the hell did I miss that?!?!?). It was challenging picking a colour scheme that wouldn't tie him with troll slayers, especially once I ended up using the same key colour - however I think I've succeeded as he looks very distinct next to my troll slayer. I'm pretty happy with the way he turned out. What do you guys think?

Week 2: Tristan - Dwarf (warhammer quest) progress 2

I've almost gotten all the basecoats done on my Dwarf for warhammer quest. I ended up going with orange just to go with the dark green of the dragon cloak. You'll notice I stayed away from orange hair though. Now it took me a while to realize but it's not a full covering helmet on his head, so what looks like a horsehair plume is actually his hair. Which hair colour should I go with - all grey so he looks a little more grizzled or blonde? Also what colour for his shoes? A neutral colour?

Week 3: Tristan - Wardancer (warhammer quest) plan

I have a few more models I kept to build up a collection of all the warhammer quest characters. I plan to try and use lots of greens without losing detail. I think I have to do something interesting with his huge hair as well.

I've got another old high elf model but I'm going to see if I can pull out something different after two weeks of warhammer quest models. I'm also looking for cheaper mfgr's mini's I could use for the following characters (barbarian, wizard, brettonian knight, chaos warrior, imperial noble).

Week 2: Tristan - Dwarf (warhammer quest) progress

I got my dwarf ready for painting over the last couple days, wanted to get a head start on him since I figure he will be one of the most involved models I'm painting for my set of warhammer quest characters. Most of my others I finished in several hours painting in either a day or two. I fully expect this guy will take longer. Sorry for the crappy pictures, I found it hard to get good focus with all the white.

This required gluing on his dragon cloak.

As well I had to do some green stuff to hide the gap.

I'm going to try to get at least a couple progress posts up per mini now, as that's kinda the fun bit - seeing it progress from pewter to painted. :)

Week 1: Tristan - Pyromaniac Wyrd (necromunda)

Here is week 1 complete. I went in a completely different direction than I was originally thinking, in no small part due to the fact that the first mini I painted with dark skin was the mordheim pit slave model - thinking this could appear offensive I decided I needed a 'cool' negro mini for equality - when I see this model now I think of "Shaft".Also I decided I didn't want the big hair or jacket becoming the focal point of the mini, so I kept them very basic and simple, usually just a base coat, wash, highlight (except the flesh). Meanwhile I did a long blend from yellow to red for the flames on the sword to try and draw the viewers eye. Next up, the dwarf lord. The only thing I know about him right now is the dragon cloak will be green and he won't have slayer (orange) hair.

Week 2: Tristan - Dwarf (warhammer quest)

Here is my mini for the second week. I've had this dwarf lord kicking around since my friend gave me a bunch of GW stuff. I'll mount him on a round base as I've done with all my other WHQ character type models. He will make 6 painted characters so I'd even have some selection for a four player game.

Not sure what techniques I'll try with him. As with most of these single mini's I will just start painting and see where it takes me.

Week 1: Tristan - Pyromaniac Wyrd (necromunda)

Here is my mini I plan to paint first week of January. My thoughts for this blog are to get one-off's painted, such a hired guns for necromunda or mordheim, characters for warhammer quest, etc. I think I've got enough single mini's to take me into March so that should hopefully give me enough time to grab some more for later in the year.